by Stephanie CrosbyFour people interviewed this afternoon for a vacant seat on the Jefferson County Board of Education. The District One seat was left open after the sudden retirement of long-time member Ann Elmore.The Department of Education must choose a successor to Elmore until a special election is held for the seat. Spokesperson Lisa Gross says it has assembled an interview panel of education experts, including a staff member from the education department and two board members from other school districts.She says they’ll make a recommendation within a week to Education Commissioner Terry Holliday.“It’s actually fairly rare that the commissioner doesn’t accept a recommendation from the panel," says Gross. "I don’t recall a time in recent memory that he hasn’t accepted the panel’s recommendation. These panels do a pretty thorough job of interviewing and vetting these candidates, so really, they do the legwork up front.”The four candidates for the seat are Diane Porter, Phyllis Morton, Bonnie Lash Freeman, and Attica Scott. All but Freeman have announced they’ll run for the seat in November’s general election.